Note: This article received a major revision on 12/4/2019.
When installing a brand-new Exchange server, there are several things that you should consider. One of them is that the process will go sm...
Updated Dec 04, 2019
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Thx for the great ideas but having a workaround article is just like saying that this is to be expected. A larger organization will likely not allow the Exchange admin to change any settings in AD sites and services, especially on the fly. It means that
a reserve set of IP addresses for a staging environment in production will have to exist. Then when the IP address changes, I'm not sure if this would potentially cause communication issues for other Exchange servers in the same site without having to restart
their AD services. At least that is what I have faced in the past.
There are other things that have to be set on a new Exchange server in the same AD site as others, such as mail transport settings (client limits).
I third the motion that Martijn has proposed. It is simple and makes the most sense. I think it should be the other way though, default would be production, override setting during install would allow the new Exchange server to hold back from participation
until all configuration settings are completed.